52 Weekend Adventures in Northern California: My Favorite Outdoor Getaways

by Tom Stienstra

Overview

Escape to the great outdoors with award-winning expert Tom Stienstra's 52 Weekend Adventures in Northern California. Inside you'll find:

• The best weekend getaways, hand-picked by the authority on outdoor adventures: Outdoors writer Tom Stienstra reveals his favorite spots, collected over decades of hiking and camping throughout the Golden State
• Recreation highlights: Immerse yourself in nature with the top options for hiking, backpacking, fishing, biking, boating, and more
• Expertise and know-how: Tom shares his personal recommendations, insider tips, and memories of his adventures in the great outdoors
• Planning tools for travelers and locals alike: Make it an easy getaway with detailed driving directions, maps for each adventure, and full-color photos throughout
• Where to eat and sleep: Discover Tom's favorite spots to grab a bite and find out where to stay on an overnight trip, from campsites to hotels
• Coverage of the Redwoods, Yosemite, Shasta, Tahoe, Lassen, Sacramento, the Wine Country, the Bay Area, and Monterey and Big Sur
  

Pick a weekend, pack the car, and get outside: Experience the best of NorCal's wilderness with 52 Weekend Adventures in Northern California.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781640499348
Publisher:	Avalon Publishing
Publication date:	09/15/2020
Series:	Travel Guide
Pages:	300
Sales rank:	400,211
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

For over 30 years, Tom Stienstra's full-time job has been to capture and communicate the outdoor experience. This has led him across California - fishing, hiking, camping, boating, biking, and flying - searching for the best of the outdoors and then writing about it.

Tom is the nation's top-selling author of outdoors guidebooks. His documentary on the Tuolumne River received an Emmy in 2017. He has been inducted into the California Outdoor Hall of Fame and has twice been awarded National Outdoor Writer of the Year, newspaper division, by the Outdoor Writers Association of America. He has also been named California Outdoor Writer of the Year five times. Tom is the outdoors columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle; his articles appear on sfgate.com and in newspapers around the country. He also broadcasts a weekly radio show on KCBS-San Francisco.

Tom lives in Northern California. You can contact him directly via the website tomstienstra.com.

Table of Contents

A Personal Note 11

Best of the Mountains 12

Best Hikes 13

Best of the Redwoods 14

Best of the Coast 15

Best of the Bay Area 16

Best of the Rivers 17

Best of the Lakes 18

Best Fishing 19

Best Surprises 20

Best Wildlife Spots 21

Nor Cal Record Holders 22

Redwoods and the North Coast 23

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park 25

Lost Coast 30

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park 36

Redwood National Park 41

Shasta and Trinity 47

Deadfall Lakes and Mount Eddy 48

Lewiston Lake 53

McCloud River Recreation Area 57

Mount Shasta 62

Shasta Lake 68

Lassen and Modoc 73

Devil's Garden 75

Lake Almanor 80

Lassen Volcanic National Park 86

Lava Beds National Monument 91

McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park 96

Mendocino and Wine Country 101

Clear Lake State Park 102

Lake Berryessa 107

Mendocino 112

Salt Point State Park 116

Sacramento and Gold Country 121

Camanche Lake 122

Don Pedro Reservoir 127

Lake Pardee 132

Sacramento River 136

San Joaquin Delta 141

American River 147

Lake Tahoe and the Northern Sierra 153

Bullards Bar Reservoir 155

Echo Lakes 160

Emerald Bay State Park 166

Independence Lake 171

Meeks Creek Trail 176

Mount Tallac 181

Sierra Buttes 186

Crystal Basin Recreation Area 191

San Francisco Bay Area 197

Angel Island State Park 198

Big Basin Redwoods State Park 203

Del Valle Regional Park 208

Los Vaqueros Reservoir 214

San Pedro Valley 219

Mount Tamalpais State Park 224

Point Reyes National Seashore 231

Monterey and Big Sur 239

Monterey Bay 240

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve 246

Big Sur 251

Yosemite and Eastern Sierra 257

Convict Lake 258

Devils Postpile National Monument 264

Glacier Point 270

Hetch Hetchy 276

Tuolumne Meadows 281

Tuolumne River 287

John Muir Trail 293

Mount Whitney 302

Pacific Crest Trail: Yosemtte to Tahoe 307

Mitchell Peak 314

Acknowledgements 318

Index 322

Editorial Reviews

"If you’ve ever hiked, camped, backpacked, fished or in any way outdoor-recreated in Northern California, it’s almost guaranteed you’ve garnered guidance from Tom Stienstra. In his four decades as The San Francisco Chronicle’s outdoors writer, Steinstra’s newspaper columns, guidebooks and appearances on television and radio have made him the Yoda of the California outdoors. He’s been everywhere and he knows everything."

—Datebook, San Francisco Chronicle

From the Publisher